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US stays shut as protagonists dig in

Jane CowanUpdated
Thu 3 Oct 2013, 3:24 PM AEST

An hour-long White House meeting between the US President Barack Obama and the four top Democrat and Republican Congressional leaders has ended without a breakthrough in the stalemate that's keeping the US Government shut down. Each side instead appears to be digging in, with Democrats saying they're unwilling to make any concessions on health care reforms in order to get a federal budget passed.

Transcript

PETER LLOYD: An hour-long White House meeting between the president Barack Obama and the top Congressional leaders from both sides has ended without a breakthrough in the stalemate that's keeping the US government shut down.

Each side appears to be digging in as North America correspondent Jane Cowan reports.

JANE COWAN: When the US president called Republican and Democratic leaders from both houses of Congress into the White House to talk behind closed doors, there were hopes of narrowing the differences that have shutdown the US government.

But it wasn't to be - the Republican leader of the House, John Boehner emerging to say the deadlock remained.

JOHN BOEHNER: We had a nice conversation, a polite conversation but they don't wanna, they will not negotiate.

JANE COWAN: With the US government paralysed, the fears of the financial industry are intensifying.

The CEO of Goldman Sachs bank and investment house Lloyd Blankfein was among Wall Street executives who met with the president at the White House and emerged to issue this warning.

LLOYD BLANKFEIN: There is a consensus that we shouldn't do anything that hurts this recovery. That is a little bit shallow, not very well established and is quite vulnerable.

The director of National Intelligence, James Clapper says the cutbacks are putting America at greater risk of a terrorist attack, because roughly 70 per cent of the intelligence work force has been stood down without pay.

JAMES CLAPPER: I've been in the intelligence business for about 50 years. I've never seen anything like this.

JANE COWAN: The Democratic senator, Dick Durbin.

DICK DURBIN: Men and women charged with the responsibility of stopping the next 9/11 are sitting at home, sitting at home.

JANE COWAN: The shutdown has seen children with cancer turned down for clinical trials at the National Institute of Health.

On Capitol Hill there's no sign of a solution but plenty of bickering over who's to blame for the failure to pass a budget.

SENATOR: Isn't it time to end the Republican shutdown?

SENATOR 2: Last night, House Republicans once again showed up and took action to stop the bleeding of Harry Reid's government shutdown.

SENATOR 3: It's the Tea Party in the House that has brought this government to its knees.

JANE COWAN: The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid.

HARRY REID: We have to stop playing these foolish games that keep coming to us from the other side of the Capitol. This is not about hammer me, about scoring points for one side or the other, name calling like the villain of villains. This is about doing the right thing for the American people; they expect us to act like adults.

JANE COWAN: Amid the slanging match the US president Barack Obama appeared to stay above the fray, giving a sit-down interview to the business channel CNBC.

REPORTER: You said one time recently, I keep hoping the light bulb goes off and it gives the impression that you think that your Republican opponents are either craven or stupid or nuts. Is that what you think?

BARACK OBAMA: Am I exasperated? Absolutely I'm exasperated, because this is entirely unnecessary.

I am exasperated with the idea that unless I say to 20 million people you can't have health insurance; these folks will not reopen the government. That is irresponsible.

JANE COWAN: Republicans are offering to pass funding for certain parts of the government, like national parks.

But Democrats insist they'll only accept a bill that funds the entire government and decouples the budget from any effort to derail the president's signature healthcare law, the most ambitious US social program in five decades, and a reform passed three years ago.

The Democratic leader in the House Nancy Pelosi.

NANCY PELOSI: They took hostages by shutting down the government. And now they're releasing one hostage at a time.

JANE COWAN: The White House press secretary Jay Carney says if Republicans want to repeal the healthcare law there's a way to do it, but the budget process isn't it.

JAY CARNEY: Take it to the people, see what they say when they vote in the next election, see what they say when they vote in the next presidential election, and then pass legislation.

But just because you can't get what you want through the American democratic process doesn't mean you should subvert that process to achieve what you want when you're a minority within one party, in one house of one branch of government.